That was the original intention. Men moved by the Spirit of God wrote a document that was intended first to honor Him, and second protect the people under it from the tyranny the were escaping.
America is now run by corporations using its military and domestic police agencies in a policy of "Manifest Destiny" here and abroad.

Jarhead is absolutely correct. I absolutely love getting into discussions about liberty, the government etc., and explaining to people that we do not live in a democracy. Their initial reaction is total disbelief, argument etc. Then when I explain most people can understand why that is a good thing.

I already knew that the general consensus was that we are a Constitutional Republic, but I have also seen several times where people tried to pin other crazy labels, such as Democratic Republic, on us. This because of different ways that someone can get into various public offices.
I just wanted to see if somebody would say "Democratic Republic". Then I could sit back and watch him be disemboweled [;D]
BTW, Chuck really did make the "representative democracy" claim in Guns&Ammo.

Good discussion.
I'd say we live NOT in a representative democracy, but in a Constitutional democratic republic.
"Constitutional" because contrary to Washington- think, we indeed do have a Constitution.
"Democratic" because at least locally, we do determine policy via "50% + 1 individual" referendum-type votes.
"Republic" becasue we elect representatives.
All three types of gov'ts are represented in present day America.
We DO NOT have a pure republic. Otherwise, we'd never have local referendum votes.
And even our representatives so closely follow the polls and the winds of public opinion RATHER THAN being leaders and standing on principle, the principles we elected them on, as representatives in a true republic would, that even the "republic" charachteristics are morphing into "the will of the majority" democracy.
So we have a sort of mix breed, mutant, hybrid form of gov't.